Lycanthropes
by nikpmup retae
Summary: Monsters. The lot of 'em. Evil, disgusting, and against the very thing the gods are for. And Nico might just be turning into one of them.


Nico POV

I sat in my table next to my cabin mates, Cody and Kyle. A light buzz waved over the campers as everyone sat enjoying their dinner, of pizza and ice cream, and gossiping about trivial things. The one thing that really caught my attention though was the fidgeting son of Eris who looked ready to bolt out of the camp in a second's notice.

Annabeth distrusted him the moment he arrived at camp with so much fighting experience without ever meeting another half-blood or godly parent. But, according to Chiron, that wasn't enough to interrogate him.

"He is a fine camper with a lot of talent. Don't be too quick to judge him so." But when she told Percy, Rachel and me about what she saw one night—he and a daughter of Hecate tampering with Thalia's pine—we where watching and waiting for him to screw up.

Slowly the kids dissolved into the camp, some to the sing-along, others to bed, and some to just mess around by the beach or woods. I eventually got bored, scraped up the last scoop of ice cream and wandered over towards the boundary line. Tonight, I volunteered to take the first shift at 'guarding' the boundary. Peleus greeted me with a tired _grrch_ before laying his huge head back down, looking depressed again. One of these days I'm going to take him for a walk.

"Hey boy," I said calmly, but I knew better than to take a seat next to him. He might get really bored for a split second and decide I'm a fun chew toy. Instead, I took a seat on the foot of a boulder and leaned back, doing my guard duties.

0o0

Nothing happened for a long time. By then, the little sliver of the moon was already in the center of the sky and I started seeing things in the stars. Hmmm…I wonder if that's how constellations came to be. No one had anything to do after dark so they started seeing things. It was during that random thought of mine that things started to get interesting.

Peleus lifted his huge head up and roared, shaking me out of my day dream. I shot up, reached for my sword, and pulled it out. Joshua stood there shocked with his eyes wide as the light from his flashlight dimmed and then turned off.

"Nico…" He laughed nervously. "What—what are you doing out here at this late hour?"

"I should be asking you the same question…" My sword was an inch from his neck. Over his shoulder was a large burlap bag and I notice him look at it from the corner of his eye. "What's in the bag?"

"Um… nothing really…"

"Open it." He swung it over his shoulder and huffed as he set it down gently. I held my sword so that it was still in a threatening position while he untied the top. I pushed him out of the way, stuffing my sword back into its sheath and felt angry heat flush my neck. Inside the bag was an unconscious girl, a daughter of Hecate at the age of 10.

"What the—" I was probably going to yell at him—maybe punch him once or twice, after all, I did not want to know what he was going to do to her, but I never got the chance. While I was down, he hit me in the back of my head and then everything turned black.

0o0

"Mm…" I opened my eyes. It was dark and my vision was fuzzy. "Huh… what…" Then, vague shapes started to appear as my eyes adjusted to the little bit light come from the corner of the room. "Hmm... What the…!" I jumped up and caused my head to spin, my dinner threatening to make another appearance.

I was in a dark room, with only a little candle in the corner. Instinctively I felt for my sword and was glad that it was still in its sheath. There where two other people in there, both girls. One I recognized from camp, Lyn Myers from the Hecate cabin—the girl in the bag. She lay unconscious in the other corner of the room with a thick cover over her. The other girl just sat there with a broken nose, beat up eye and broken jaw.

"_Limatay Limmicka?" _she asked after a quiet moment. I turned to look at her, surprised she was talking.

"Um…" I didn't know how to respond. She asked me if I spoke Greek. I understood a LOT of it but other than the chants I did for raising the dead, I could never actually speak it. She sighed.

"Speech… English?" she struggled. I slowly nodded my head. "Off for time," she said nodding towards the other girl. "No dead. Need up or no good."

"Um, okay then…" I said crawling towards Lyn. I shook her shoulders and tried to wake her up.

"Water," she said. I looked at her and saw that she was pointing a cracked chin towards the small earthen pot behind me. I grabbed it and poured some on her face. She jumped up, shocked then turned to look at me.

"Nico…" she breathed. She was shaking and I pulled the covers over her shoulder again. "What on earth… where am I?" I shrugged my shoulders and turned to look at the other girl. I didn't notice she was shackled to the wall, from her neck, like a dog.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But we're going to get out." I got up and began feeling around the room. There wasn't even a window.

"No open," the girl struggled again. I looked at her to see she was digging at the dirt beside her until she made a little hole. "We down here," she pointed at the bottom of the hole before closing it up again.

"So how do we get out?" Lyn asked. I was a little panicked, I'll admit. I was wondering if they left us here to rot with no food and barely any water.

"Kira," the girl stated simply.

"What?" I began, but my questions where all answered when the roof of our little prison opened up.

"They're alive!" A man called from above. "What do we do know, Milady?" A girl walked over with a gas lamp on her hands, allowing me to see the gold locks tied behind her head.

"We take them out, of course!" she smiled at me, but it wasn't friendly. "Take the girl out of here—make sure she doesn't remember anything after she's done with the work."

"And the boy, Miss?" The man asked.

"I like my steak rare." She laughed obnoxiously before getting up and walking out of my line of vision. I saw the guy roll his eyes before he jumped in the hole.

"Alright, girly…" he said picking up Lyn and throwing her over his shoulder. "We're not going to hurt you—you heard the lady. You have a very important job to do!" She punched and kicked him with all the might she could muster but the guy barely budged.

"No! Let me down you freak!" she cried. I pulled out my sword and pointed it straight at him.

"Watch it kid," the guy said calmly. Lyn stopped kicking and looked over her shoulder. "That thing's pointy…"

"Drop her. Now," I ordered. He slowly let go of Lyn who ran behind me.

"I don't want to start any fights, kid…" the guy said raising his arms up. I didn't budge. "But it looks like you leave me no _choice!" _he growled at the last word—and I mean literally growled. Before my eyes he turned into a huge, fat wolf, exploding out of his flannel shirt and jeans.

"Holy sh—" before I could finish my sentence he jumped at me and began snapping at my ears. A loud, girlish scream erupted from behind me as I tried to slice its head off.

"You really should have stayed out of it," the wolf laughed. I kicked its abdomen and he yelped, but that wasn't enough. The most I could do was hold its teeth away from my neck, but that didn't stop the razor sharp claws that were raking against my arms. He eventually quit trying to tear my head off and went for slicing it off. The wolf raised a huge grey claw and was about to tear my face off, but my ADHD finally kicked in and I rolled out from underneath it. I lifted up my sword and stabbed it in the back. The next thing I knew the entire cell was covered in monster dust.

I breathed in short, panicked breaths. The orange candle light was enough to see the look of shock in Lyn's face and the look of utter terror in the other girl's.

"By the way what's your name?" I asked, suddenly realizing that I never bothered learning her name.

"What?" Her jaw moved in awkward positions, like the left side was fully hooked but the right became unlatched.

"Name like, I'm Nico," I said pointing at myself. "And that's Lyn." I said pointing at the shaking girl. She breathed in deep and managed to compose herself enough to talk.

"Sophie," she slurred. I nodded and looked up. Apparently the little battle down here wasn't even noticed by our captors. I nodded for Lyn to come over and she abruptly stood, running up behind me. I looked up again, but this time trying to measure how far up our exit was. 10 feet easy, so I surely wouldn't be jumping out…

"Okay," I said. "Everyone stand back." Lyn rolled her purple-ish eyes as she went back towards the corner again and I turned to look at Sophie. She just sat there. "Oh, um… right." I tightened the grip on my sword as I walked towards her. She shrunk back and put her arms out in front of her like she was going to get hit. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "Geez, calm down—I'm not planning on slicing your head off."

I gently pushed her head forward and lifted my sword above my head. She yelped a little, but with one quick and precise motion I managed to slice off the Celestial Bronze chain as close as possible to the collar. I sheathed my sword and offered her a hand which she unsurely took.

"Okay, _now _step back." She looked up and gave me a death glare, but I'm pretty sure I saw some gratitude in there also. She got up and limped towards Lyn, who scooted away uncomfortably. I then turned towards the opposite side of the cell and began making some 'educated' calculations on how I'm going to cut off the wall. After making the best estimations I took a step back and breathed in. Then I ran towards the wall and hit it with all my might.

_Boom__Crash__Clunk!_

The top of the hole came down a reasonable amount and slanted—4 feet cut off, with the rest of the earth caving in and providing a little bit of a boost.

"That could've buried us…" Lyn whimpered. Sophie stood quietly in the other corner, but she looked pretty shaken.

"Yeah, well…" I yawned a little and the room spun. "It didn't, so are we getting out or not?" Lyn walked up first, needing a little bit of my help to climb up over the remaining 5 feet. I myself could barely look over the edge. Sophie hobbled over and grabbed the top with her hands and pulled her way out. She then turned around and offered me a hand. I didn't think I'd need it, but when the dirt loosened up underneath me and I lost that extra foot of leverage I had to be pulled out the rest of the way.

I dusted myself off as I got up. When I finally looked up I was met with a not-so-friendly sight. Lyn was held captive again, her mouth covered with the palm of some huge guys palm. There were 4 other people behind the same girl as earlier, but this time she wasn't smiling.

"A son of Hades… I should've known why you smelled like a cemetery." She looked past my shoulder where Sophie was limping towards the rest of the group. "And I see you've released our prisoner." I pulled out my Stygian Iron sword and walked up towards them.

"I did, and the three of us are going to be leaving now. So let go of the kid and no one gets hurt," I threatened. Usually, when I make a threat it has this strong effect on mortals, demigods, and monsters. But this girl, Kira I guessed from Sophie's earlier statement, didn't even seem the slightest phased.

"Take the girl out back and make _sure _she does it correctly. I don't want any mess-ups when we burn the camp down," she said turning her back on me. The huge guy grunted and carried Lyn away. When the girl was about 6 feet away I did this _really _stupid, and maybe even subconscious, move. I ran towards her with all the speed I could spare and rammed the blade straight towards her back. Or at least, I tried to.

She turned around so fast that I didn't notice until she grabbed the blade with both hands and stopped it just before it could stab her. The blade and I wobbled, just like I hit a piece of granite. During my split moment of incomprehension she grabbed the hilt of my sword and pushed me down.

"You might be the son of one of the 'Big Three'," she hissed grabbing the blade in a fist. "But I'm a daughter of someone much more powerful than any one of them can hope to be…" She got the blade and crushed it like it was a paper cup. "I'm a daughter of the earth. I'm a daughter of _Gaia_!" She threw my broken, twisted sword in front of me just for effect before walking away. "Make sure those two get thrown back in the hole. Milo's holding a conference and I'm late as it is."

One of the other four grunted and pulled me up from my collar. He tossed me back into the pit and I landed with a nice little _thump. _The dirt around me flew and I coughed some of it up. Another second later another body fell from the sky, just as Sophie landed a foot away from me.

"Ouch…" she muttered rolling over. I could feel bruises popping up all over the place and the lack of honest sleep was finally getting to me. We sat in silence and for the second time tonight I found myself star gazing for lack of anything better to do.

0o0

"I help you go," Sophie said after an hour. The sky already lightened up but I never found the muse to actually fall asleep. "Good time to leave now."

"What?" I asked. I'm tired of speaking in riddles. Actually I'm just plain tired. She sighed and sat up, heaving in labored breaths.

"I help you go—good time now. Sun is up," she said looking at the sky. "We no like sun god. He sees all."I nodded and sat up also.

"Okay, so what do we do?" I asked. She sighed and looked right at me from under bloated, blood-shot eyes—a very cold and serious glare.

"I help you leave, you come back." I raised an eyebrow.

"Come again?"

"I help you leave, you come back for me. Swear on Styx."She said seriously. I nodded slowly and this weird churning feeling erupted in my gut.

"I promise."

"_Swear!_" She growled. I huffed and put my right hand up, rolling my eyes the entire time.

"I solemnly swear on the River Styx that once you help me escape I'll come back for you." I said. The churning feeling in my stomach subsided as she quietly nodded and got up off the floor.

"When I jump, you run fast. No look back, no stop. Okay?" She said. I nodded my head as she took in three deep breaths. "_Eno, Vio, Crea!" _She hissed and jumped out of the pit growling and shaking and… not completely human.

"_Go!_" a voice growled from above just as other hisses and snaps echoed. I took a few steps back and ran, jumping a little at the end so I could reach that extra foot. I pulled myself out and watched as 6 huge wolves attacked a smaller and weaker one. But I knew I wouldn't stand a chance against any of them without a weapon so I did the smart thing.

I ran, just like I was supposed to, straight into the woods. I'd come for her, like I swore, but with help.

"No!" Another voice cried out from behind me. "If he says _anything _we're screwed!"

"Do we bring him back?" I was far away now and everything was a mindless buzz.

"Don't bother with that now—just make sure he doesn't remember what he saw tonight!" I heaved and the exhaustion became too much. I slowed and gasped trying to breathe in the air I lost from the sprint. I could barely hear the rustle from behind me. A large, heavy weight jumped on my back and rolled me over. Joshua sat on me with his knee on my chest. I tried struggling but as it was I was about to pass out from exhaustion anyways.

He pulled out a small, glass container from his back pocket and popped off the lid. "This," he explained "Is water from the river Lethe. Well… a little improved though. We actually had to dilute it, you know, so we don't erase too much…" He held me down as a single drop began to fall out. The single, freezing drop landed right in the center of my forehead.

0o0

I jolted upright on my bed, the entire room spinning as I tried to remember what happened last night. I looked out the window just as the first ray of sunlight made its way in. My arms burned and long cuts and bruises where left over from…something…. I shook my head as I swung my legs over the cot, fully dressed, and quietly walked out the door.

Rachel was already at the boundary, throwing Peleus some apples and doodling dragon drawings in her sketchpad.

"Hey Nico," she greeted while tossing the dragon another fruit. "You're up early."

"Yeah, I guess." I agreed and took a seat on the moist earth. "I don't remember anything from yesterday," I blurted but Rachel didn't seem to really acknowledge that.

"Mm hmm, the days really fly by now, huh? It's so _boring _here at camp that half the time I don't even know what's going on." She shrugged. "The most interesting thing was the 'guarding' duties out here, but now we're probably going to stop."

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, that kid that Annabeth had her suspicions about—he left the camp this morning. I heard him tell Chiron that 'This isn't the right kind of atmosphere for me'," she rolled her eyes at the pathetic attempt to deepen her voice. "So, now that there isn't anyone suspicious enough to spy or suspect of, it's back to camp fire sing-along for you!" I groaned.

"Great." I sat there awkwardly watching as the sun finally lit up the entire sky.

"Well then," she yawned and stretched. Peleus sighed sadly as she gathered her stuff and began walking back towards the camp. "I'll see you at breakfast, gloomy!"

That strange feeling of forgetfulness stayed with me all that morning. I was forgetting something—something important that I promised to someone…

Oh, yeah! I promised Percy to meet him at the arena for a 'friendly' match. Now if only I could remember where I put my sword…

0o0

a/N:  
**Thanks to Beta extraordinaire, TAP for making the story as understandable as possible.  
Thanks again :)**

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